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User blog:Lily Ford/Review: Pacific Rim: Tales From The Drift (2016)
Pacific Rim: Tales From The Drift was originally conceived as as ongoing series meant to last no longer than three years. Before It's name was revealed, Guillermo del Toro already planned for the comic book to run just a year longer than the cancelled animated series, in an effort to get both mediums to line up with the events of the sequel he and Zak Penn were working on. It was gonna be an explosion of lore, characters and merchandising as the years rolled toward the sequel. I mentioned before that, while I was not excited for a sequel because of the potential problems it could bring in terms of the original movie, I was excited for the animated series and comic book. Both were promises into a world that we only got to know through references, so even if you knew how the story would end for a lot of characters, how they got there would be the more interesting aspect of pre-film media. The unknowable thing about Tales From The Drift is determining when they actually started working on the series itself. It was officially announced in March 2015, and the first issue was released in November 2015 and only appeared to hit a hiccup in February 2016 when the final issue wasn't released until May 2016, then the trade was released in July that same year. On top of that, it was barely promoted, most people within the fandom forgot it was even coming out, and a lot of people weren't impressed by the effort. Even though del Toro (as usual) wants to pursue the animated series project still, it’s pretty much six feet under. We’re probably never going to see it, just like we’re not getting a Hellboy 3 (just a reboot, and one that already experiences its fair share of problems). Tales From The Drift as an ongoing comic book went from a lead up, to a four issue mini-series that is, quite frankly, plagued with problems. So, let’s talk about the very tangible and very disappointing Pacific Rim: Tales From The Drift. THE BREAKDOWN What is it About? in Issue #1 of Tales From The Drift.]] ''Tales From The Drift focuses primarily on the last days of Tacit Ronin (a Mark-1 Jaeger) and its pilots, a husband and wife team, Duc and Kaori Jessop. Specifically, it’s about their only two battles, one of which leads to their inevitable deaths. In between the battles, the miniseries also “focuses” on their relationship: How it came to be, how they worked together and how they ended together. The comic also sees brief appearances from Stacker Pentecost and Mako Mori. This specific story is set about four weeks after Stacker Pentecost saves Mako Mori from Onibaba in Tokyo, and also takes place in Tokyo around the Tokyo Bay. The story was written by Travis Beacham, presumably with no editing supervision from del Toro (who gets a "presented by" credit), and the script duties for the comic book itself fell to the responsibility of writer, Joshua Hale Fialkov. What’s good about It? The Artwork Right off the bat, Tales From The Drift sees an improvement in art direction, largely because its consistent throughout all four issues of the book squashed into a trade. There are no alternate artists, there's just Marcos Marz (line art) and Marcelo Maiolo (colorist). They do a better job at representing the focus characters and the world than all twelve artists that were hired to work on Pacific Rim: Tales From Year Zero. The highest compliment I could pay Tales From The Drift is consistent artwork, and its use of color (with the exception of green). Visually, the book isn’t dull, there’s always something to catch your eye, but it can be a mess. On the Surface, it’s about Duc and Kaori Jessop At face value, it’s a comic book focused on Kaori and Duc Jessop. The two characters were originally in Travis Beacham’s early script, and were swapped for Aleksis and Sasha Kaidonovsky, Herc and Chuck Hansen, and the Wei Tang Brothers (Cheung, Hu, and Jin). I’ve always wanted to read a story about them, specifically, and their relationship (considering they’re a married couple and co-pilots). They were, arguably the two most talked about (unseen) characters in the fandom during the earliest point of film’s flagging success in US theaters. They were largely forgotten about, if only because del Toro made it perfectly clear he wasn’t interested in exploring the past in the form of any kind of prequel (written or otherwise) despite the fact that Beacham was. Then June 2014 came, and hope was renewed. Stacker and Mako Stacker and Mako, two of the most important characters in the franchise, appear in the third and fourth issue of the miniseries. It's simply for the purposes of making a cameo and functioning as two characters who the readers already know. It's a nice little appearance that'll put a smile on your face and honestly, I think it was meant to foreshadow their roles in the original series format. We might've actually gotten to see more of their relationship in a three year long series. What’s bad about It? The original script keeps being reused So, it goes without saying that Travis Beacham's original script for Pacific Rim is not great. I suspect, after the actual purchasing process that got Beacham through the door, rewrites started happening. Very little of what Beacham wrote in his original script actually made it to the end product of the original film beyond the concepts behind “Giant Mechs fighting Giant Monsters” and a handful of characters (most of which got fused into one or were replaced). And like any writer, I suspect Beacham wasn’t completely crazy that his darling was revamped into a completely different creature. Some of what was in the original script actually made its way into the first graphic novel, Tales From Year Zero. Particularly, Raleigh and Yancy Becket fighting over a girl named Naomi Sokolov (originally Felicity Kincaid the script). They practically ruined up their partnership over the fact that Naomi went out with the Becket brother she was interested in (Yancy) before they were reprimanded for it. Then there was the instantaneous romance between Caitlin Lightcap and Sergio D'Onofrio and the "naked in the drift" depiction of their headspace which is also taken directly from the original script. Other original elements from the script appear in Tales From The Drift within Duc and Kaori’s relationship. In the original script Duc and Kaori were some happy-go lucky team couple that basically existed to dispense advice to proto-Raleigh and proto-Mako. Duc was a biracial Korean-Aussie obsessed with American westerns whose name no one could pronounce right (everyone called him "Duck"), and Kaori was just his wife and BFF to proto-Mako who constantly remarked about how “cute” proto-Raleigh was. Unfortunately, in Tales From The Drift, they're given the "rivals-to-lovers" and "language barrier" plots that Mako and Raleigh had in the original script, and it's a huge detriment to the believably of their relationship as a married couple, or as partners of Tacit Ronin. So the basic breakdown is this: Kaori speaks Japanese, and doesn’t know a lick of English (Presumably. The comic book is inconsistent about this based on how she responds to Duc). Duc is a hgue jerk who doesn’t understand Japanese, and doesn’t like Kaori because she punched him after forcing her mini-submarine up to surface during a Kaiju attack that she was trying analyze in order to categorize the Kaiju, Thunderhead. The two hate each other, and we as readers are only really ever able to see the beginning of their relationship in that context. In the present, we see them as as a well adjusted couple that trusts each other, but we're never allowed to see the part of their past that shows how they got to where they are in the present. We're just supposed to accept it. And regarding the whole "language barrier" thing, I always found this element of the original script one of the most forced, racist, and insincere ways to create conflict between two people from different backgrounds. I feel like del Toro realized this, and deliberately changed Mako and Raleigh's for that reason. It flows better, Raleigh knowing how to speak Japanese after Mako comments about expecting him to be "different" verses not at all and being a jerk about it. Instead of redundant dialog that basically says "I don't understand what you're saying to me", you get relationship that focused on finding common ground and supporting each other. I feel like they should've went with the former logic here instead of the latter. Duc and Kaori Drifting, and sparring, then magically understanding each other because “everything was stripped away” and falling in love like something out of , is just hard to swallow and flat out ridiculous in a premise that already asks the reader to suspend a lot of disbelief. I've never been certain why Beacham thought this was a good or profound way to set up a relationship. It's just lazy, because it requires no effort and neither character are allowed to develop through trying to understand and respect each other like normal human beings. The fact that it returns here in the Duc/Kaori dynamic shows that Beacham never understood why the Mako/Raleigh meeting and relationship was changed so dramatically. Beacham re-purposing the things that were discarded from the original script for a reason is highly questionable, because it makes me as a reader wonder if he's thought about the world beyond character creation. It doesn't seem like he should be so reliant on the old script, and would at least acknowledge that the language barrier plot was one its less than stellar ideas that needed to be gotten rid of and was until he re-introduced it. The Story is in a Hurry to be over and is All over the Place ;Story Tales From The Drift is a rushed production. Even with markedly better artwork than Tales From Year Zero, the plot isn't a solid one. And it is wrapped around a story that feels as though large chunks of it have been pulled out of a puzzle piece that was long from being complete. The story present here is a weak one. It’s a collection of moments in panels with no solid continuity or pacing. The most we know about the circumstances of the plot is that Tacit Ronin ends up fighting two Kaiju: Itak and Ragnarok. Kaori and Duc frequently blackout during the fight, because their Jaeger is damaged, and flashback to when they met. The final two issues basically focus on their deaths against Ragnorok, a Category II Kaiju. While thais format might've worked for Tales From Year Zero, a graphic novel designed for short stories, a story that was clearly supposed to be longer doesn't work in a condensed format. ;Framing The framing of the action sequences isn't great. I spent most of my time wondering where in relation to their environment Tacit Ronin and the Kaiju it was fighting were. A lot of the panels are negative space with two figures slapped in the middle or the edges of them. What environments we see (Tokyo Bay, Tokyo Medical Center, a graveyard, and what I think is a Shatterdome interior) are focused on as little as possible. A lot of the stuff is just a washed out collage, which is disappointing. ;Pacing Tales From The Drift is plagued with pacing issues. Nothing in the story is really set up well. One moment we're watching Kaori and Duc fight a Kaiju, the next, we're jumping back and forth between two different periods of the past from when they met and when they were training to become pilots, then back to the present where the meat of the story takes place. The cohesion of the story that might've been present if it had simply been told from the start, established who these characters were before having them meet face-to-face, then naturally progress towards the end that concludes in their death. The impatience in the writing is staggering. This could've come out a much more coherent story if the writer's had simply taken their time, or been giving the time to actually cultivate the relationship between Duc and Kaori, and world around them. Non-linear storytelling doesn't work for the story or plot they're trying to tell in Tales From The Drift. But, the problem, I guess, lies in the fact that Pacific Rim isn’t a MCU-level money-maker, so we’re not ever going to see any decent exploration into this word that won't feel like a cheap cash-grab. The Part that Really Lost Me del Toro and Beacham made of point of saying that none of the Jaeger pilots were particularly special, or a bunch of "chosen ones". If they could pilot a Jaeger, its because they worked to get into physical and mental mindset and they found the right partner to fight alongside. Raleigh's importance to the narrative was his unfinished business with the war. His and Stacker's ability to pilot their Jaegers solo wasn't a marker of uniqueness or specialness. So, when the conclusion of Tales From The Drift has Tacit Ronin sustaining so much damage that Duc and Kaori completely disconnected from Drift, something that should render Tacit Ronin inoperable like what happened with Striker Eureka was hit with an EMP blast that broke Herc and Chuck's neural handshake, one would think that's how they die. Unable to escape the Jaeger and at the mercy of Ragnarok, the Kaiju that will kill them. Instead, what happens is that the two are somehow able to control Tacit Ronin without the being connected to each other, to the Drift, the thing that makes it possible to pilot the Jaeger at all, and kill the Kaiju Rangarok before dying themselves. It really took me out of the story and largely because it contradicts the rules set up for the Drift and piloting the Jaeger. Not only does it not definite the strength of their relationship, the very line "They're meant to be together. Destined" only illustrates that Beacham was more interested in presented Kaori and Duc Jessop as these "special snowflake" type characters who can achieve the impossible and were preordained to be a couple. The story, in the end does nothing to build-up a genuine relationship. No Character, No Development, No Personality Another problem with Tales From The Drift is the utter lack of character or personality. Because I'm aware of where their storyline comes from, Kaori and Duc function like characters from a pre-del Toro era script and I don’t like them as a result. They lack any real charisma or personality because there is no real time spent with these characters in a world that clearly warrants time and attention, but will get none. You as a reader don’t end up caring about these characters because all you ever get out of their story is “they met, they fought, and died”. Supporting characters are pretty much non-existent, and the only reason Stacker and Mako aren’t completely terrible additions to the story is because you already know them. In the first issue, Kaori and Duc’s meeting is set up, but there’s an utter lack of context. We don’t know when during the war this is (arguably early to late 2015, considering Brawler Yukon appears); we don’t know where this is (besides out on the coast on a submersible and an airplane carrier) and there’s little reference to the world around them. Duc is a disabled soldier with a artificial limb, but when did the world in Pacific Rim advance so far where you could provide these kinds of things for people who lost limbs? Duc is already working with the PPDC, but we don’t know his position in the organization. The same goes for Kaori. She’s down in a mini-submarine trying to track a Kaiju (Thunderhead), but what’s her position? K-Watch? And who are the people she works with? We never know who is piloting Brawler Yukon. This also happens with Coyote Tango (that one Jaeger that was purported retired because it got wrecked in Stacker’s fight with the Kaiju), who’s pilots also go unacknowledged outside of one line of spoken dialog in the second issue. They never acknowledge their presence at all and it’s this kind of laziness that is pervasive in this four-issue story. It makes the whole affair feel like a rush job instead of something they actually wanted to work on. After Duc and Kaori defeat the first Kaiju, its two weeks after (July 5, 2016) and the two subsequently die that day in fight with another Kaiju. But, the last two issues decided to introduce new minor characters (Marshal Hikai, pilots Itu, and Kagiso) and a literal brand-spanking new Jaeger (Victory Alpha) we know nothing about, that are outright ignored after the third issue. There’s no sense of place and time in the story. It jumps back and forth between past and present, largely in an attempt to seem cool because comics are so dependent on being chronological and linear. A glance at the timeline for the inconsistent world for the Pacific Rim universe, you’ll know that June 21, 2016, when the first fight takes place, is four weeks after Stacker saves Mako. He’s presumably adopted here at this point (and it’s the date when Yancy and Raleigh join the Academy in Tales From Year Zero). But, the narrative itself doesn’t tell you this because Mako and Stacker only appear in the last two issues for the sake of a cameo. It's nice to see them, but they’re not important to the story, and neither is the context of how long it’s been since Mako was saved and adopted by Stacker, so they’re inclusion is extraneous and adds nothing. The Otherwise Consistent Artwork Other things that irked me were particular choices in art-direction. There are some instances where the artists just looked like they gave up and didn’t go over the character designs with a fine tooth comb as their pencil point became dull and flat and just left sketch marks. Kaiju Blue, the blood of Kaiju that has consistently been portrayed as a bright glowing blue color, is repeatedly depicted as green. GREEN. In terms of character design, Ragnorok and Itak (the latter is pictured above this text), who were designed by Marcos Marz, are probably the most uninspired looking Kaiju in the present canon after Raiju (giant crocodile) and Scunner (the Knifehead repaint). Originally, Duc was a character who was Vietnamese-Australian. However, in this miniseries dUC is simply “Australian” according to Kaori and that’s it. The character is no longer a biracial Vietnamese man, just basic white male character. This is further supported by Marz's depiction of Duc as the most square-jawed Captain America-Superman looking dude you will ever see. Kaori’s background and family is similarly ignored and the only real reference she ever gets to any sort of culture is one of those gardens you see in a training sequence with cherry blossoms floating around where she and Duc share a kiss (that’s also a scene from the original scrip). I can’t for the life of me figure out why things integral to allowing your readers to understand who these characters are beyond "Jaeger pilot" were just flat-out ignored or changed. Moreover, it brings into question how genuine or honest Beacham was being with the information about the characters will we likely never see in future media. I don't particularly understand the reason for the changes or what was left out. It does cast a lot of doubt on what Beacham has chosen to share with the fandom. Like, how much of what we know is actually the truth and not something he made up because people were willing to pay him attention for a brief moment in time? CONCLUSION Four years ago, Tales From The Drift might’ve been an interesting inclusion into the inconsistent timeline that is Pacific Rim’s universe. Four years ago, there might’ve (emphasis on might’ve) been some effort into creating something other than a half-hearted story for two of the most inquired-about (at the time) Jaeger pilots, Duc and Kaori Jessop. As it stands, this is a pretty weak story and for the most part it’s been deservedly forgotten by the fan base. Even with the heavy implications that this was a butchered storyline, I’m not sure length would save it considering the sources it was drawing from. Tales From The Drift adds nothing to the Pacific Rim’s story or lore. It barely functions as a story so much as it functions as a summary because there is no depth to the characters, no exploration into the world, and the sense of place and time is extremely poor. I wouldn’t recommend Tales From The Drift to anyone, not even a completionist who’s gotta get every single piece of merchandise. You can read a summary of the book online and lose nothing of value. Category:Blog posts